Who Killed The Candy Lady Reviewed By Karen Dahood of Bookpleasures.com

Karen Dahood

Reviewer Karen Dahood :
Karen lives in Tucson, AZ. After 35 years as a writer for businesses
and nonprofits, she has turned to writing mysteries,the subtext of
which addresses ageism, unpreparedness for aging, and America's
wealth of experience and wisdom. Learn more about eldersleuth Sophie
George at the Website Moxie
Cosmos; Making Sense of Life Through Writing.

This
book will attract readers who love noir murder mysteries, but also
feminist historians. An established, award-winning journalist, James
Ylisela lays out the facts surrounding the mysterious disappearance
of a Chicago heiress and sheds light on a syndicate making fortunes
by cheating the newly rich who wanted to be part of the fashionable
racehorse breeding scene. Chicago in the 1960s to 1980s (following
the opening of the interstate highways and the St. Lawrence Seaway)
was a hub of activity, a great place for men and women who were
rootless, and some who were unscrupulous, to make wealthy friends and
spend their money. Mobsters and con men, two fraudulent strains of
the growing economy, came together in the wealthy suburbs to prey on
widows like Helen Voorhees Brach.

It
was as a coat-checker in a Florida nightclub that Helen Voohees, then
38, caught the eye of Frank Brach, the older man who married her and
introduced her to Chicago society. He died in 1970, leaving her his
candy fortune, twenty million dollars (equal to $120 million today).
At age 57 Helen was eccentric, believed in “spirit writing,”
supported animal welfare (though she wore fur coats), and wanted to
own horses. Two men became influential in her life: John “Jack”
Matlick was her houseman, her driver. Richard Bailey was her
boyfriend, a ladies man, with inroads to society and the tentacles of
the local mafia wrapped around him. He had an “in” with the
Jaynes family, who were (among other things) involved killing horses
to collect the insurance. Their success fueled his inventiveness, and
in 1975 he and his brother sold Helen three racehorses for $98,000,
making an $80,000 profit.

Bailey
held Helen Brach in his spell until (maybe) something he said or did
tipped her off in 1977. Some people think she was about to turn him
in. All we know is that Helen Brach, age 65, went into the Mayo
Clinic in Minnesota, was discharged, but according to Bailey and
Matlick (at first) never made it home. Possibly she went to Florida
to meet Bailey and find a new home. Perhaps Matlick, about to lose
his job, picked her up at the hospital and killed her at her farm.
Some people were sure Bailey had done her in but others thought her
houseman was the killer. A third man pleaded guilty but was never
charged. The case was stymied because of conflicting theories and no
solid evidence, not even a body. Quite likely, the wary horse mob
ordered her death to keep her from pulling the plug on their
lucrative operations. That leads to the larger story, the failure of
law enforcement. The local police clashed with the FBI, leaving us to
wonder: Who was bought out? Who was protected? Who was afraid?
Ultimately, Bailey went to prison, and since 1997 this author has
wanted the case to be reopened, because there are men alive who know
the truth, including investigators. (See Ylisela’s recent article:
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/article/20141206 (Crain’s Chicago
Business).

Fascinating
to me, Helen Brach was just one of many women who let charmers seduce
them, taking them out of loneliness by appealing to their desire to
be classy. This was after a very long period of economic downturn,
and at the very dawn of the Feminist Movement, when many women were
still confused about what to do when they were left on their own, and
especially vulnerable when they had more money than they ever had
before. I wonder -- could this happen today? Is that generation of
women gone? Or are there always going to be women who think men are
smarter than they are?